Shiny surfaces in the foreground are highlighted, shadows are very strong.

Lighting tips

A camera's flash casts sharp shadows and provides a harsh, white light. It is easy to over-expose the details, and focus on the wrong subject. Of course, a flash photo can also show details that are normally hidden.

You can add warmth to photos by changing the white balance. Some cameras have settings for cloudy or overcast light, enhancing the yellows in the photo.

A mostly overcast sky, mid-afternoon, Birdsland reserve, Australia. The over-exposed sky turned the trees and their reflection into an outline. | Source

Plant framing - find your emphasis

You don't always need to place the focus in the middle of the photo. Slightly offsetting the main subject in your photo can seem more professional and artistic.

The golden rule of thirds

To make your photo more interesting, position your subject at either 1/3 or 2/3 in the frame (vertically or horizontally).

Of course, this is a soft suggestion, not a hard rule!

An offset autumn maple, at Tamozawa villa, Nikko, Japan. | Source

You can fill a photo with tiny details in a macro shot, or with the landscape, capturing how the plants interact with their surroundings.

Wider landscape photos allow you to capture trees as they march in rows and gardens as they display their harsh (or soft) edges.

A small plant can be overpowered by hard concrete, or a tall tree can tower over a small building.

Avoid capturing anything that distracts from your subject, or crop the photo in an image editing program.

Macro photographs are perfect for displaying details such as veins, hairs, patterned bark, needles, woodgrain, water droplets, and new shoots.

Landscape photos are best for capturing forests, hedgerows, manicured gardens and streetscapes.

Click thumbnail to view full-size

Midday in summer, trees march along a river, Leipzig, Germany. | Source

Plant perspective - play with it!

Tilting the camera so that upright plants are shown at an angle gives a feeling of freedom or movement, such as when the wind blows. For more solid plants, such as huge trees, it lends an other-worldly air.

Get down below low-sitting plants, or high up in a tree for an uncommon perspective. We see trees and flowers from eye level and at a distance every day, so an unusual angle is more interesting.

Highlights - animals, water and more

In macro shots of plants, insects, spiders, or other animals, can make photos come to life. They draw the eye to notice details that are normally overlooked.

Water droplets lend freshness to the photo, and also work to highlight delicate details. A spray bottle of water is a useful tool on a sunny day, if you want water highlights!

Blurred backgrounds

If you are taking macro or close-up photos, you want to blur a distracting, cluttered background to keep the viewer focused on your subject. Most macro or super-macro functions choose camera settings that will give you a nice blur in the background.

A photo with foreground details in focus and a blurry background is closer to how we see the world - we focus on a point, and the rest is smoothed over.

Type of camera

Which type of camera do you have?

Cell phone - easiest to carry everywhere!

Small point and shoot - light to carry, but takes better photos than my phone.

Mid-sized compact with zoom lens - with macro and zoom settings, but without the hassle of multiple lenses.

Post-processing plant photos

Use photo processing software to enhance your shots - there are many available for free online.

Both software (Photoshop, Gimp, iPhoto, etc) and online photo tools, have many filters and settings that you can use to change colours, lighting, crop and tilt photos, get an antique or black and white shot, and much more.

Work on an extra copy of your photos, so you always have the original, and don't need to worry when playing with filters and settings.

At the top of a leatherwood tree, Tasmania, Australia. | Source

Keep on photographing!

Look through inspiring image galleries and useful tips from pro-photographers, such as those at the National Geographic, for ideas on how to capture unique and beautiful photos.

However the best way to capture good plant and tree shots, is to take a lot of photos, and take them often.

As you photograph more, you will get used to your camera's settings, and your skills will improve.

Free online courses

Stanford has made their course in digital photography available online for free. With demonstrations of key concepts covered in lectures, and photo assignments, it's a great, guided push to improve your photography skills.

The Digital Photography School blog has organized hundreds of tutorial posts into a variety of fantastic guides, including one for beginner photographers. I could get lost in this blog - chock full of great information!

Comments

What are your favorite plants to photograph, or your favorite times to capture photos of trees?Let us know in the comments below!

Comments

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poetryman6969 2 years ago

Love that forest pathway through the trees in the German countryside.

Melis Ann 5 years agofrom Mom On A Health Hunt

What beautiful photography. I will try to use these tips to photograph my vegetable garden. I've been documenting my progress in photos as the season progresses. Perhaps I will use them in a future hub. Sharing this with my followers.

Author

Kymberly Fergusson 5 years agofrom Villingen Schwenningen, Germany

Klara - thank you so much! I've been teaching different subjects from programming, computers, web development to technical writing, music and English for nearly 20 years now (eeek!)

I hope your friends and husband enjoy the hub too.

Shortest and easiest is Kym ;-)

klarawieck 5 years ago

I'm a huge fan of photography and so is my husband. We often go on photoshoots to the Everglades, the beach, or even parts of the city. His photography often inspires me to write and I've included some of his photos in my hubs.

You, Kimberly (I finally got an easier name to call you!), are a very talented woman. Your photography is beautiful, and your writing is superb. You must be a teacher, too, since you have a very methodical approach to explaining how it's done. This is a wonderful hub which I'm planning to share with my husband and some other friends who are into photography. Great job!

Author

Kymberly Fergusson 5 years agofrom Villingen Schwenningen, Germany

Natashalh - thank you! I think I wrote this partly as a reminder to myself -- I've been focusing on too many flowering plants recently!

Author

Kymberly Fergusson 5 years agofrom Villingen Schwenningen, Germany

Vanderleelie - overcast and just after rain is the perfect time for colors, and for beautiful water droplet highlights! Thank you!

Natasha 5 years agofrom Hawaii

Thanks for all the information about photographing plants. You're right, it can be easy to forget about the non-flowering plants. Voted up and useful (and bookmarked).

Cynthia Calhoun 5 years agofrom Western NC

I'm just eating up your photography hubs. :) I'm treating myself to a really nice camera for my birthday. I'm having such fun experimenting and I'm finding out it just takes a lot of photo-taking to get better and really develop an eye for it. Even with my cheap-o camera right now. Thanks for sharing this. :)

Vanderleelie 5 years ago

An excellent outline of photography practice. I enjoy shooting outdoors on overcast days, just after a rain - it seems that each leaf and bud is intensely coloured under those conditions. Voted up and useful!

Brenda Kyle 5 years agofrom Blue Springs, Missouri, USA

Thank you for sharing such details about the lighting differences based on the time of day.

Author

Kymberly Fergusson 5 years agofrom Villingen Schwenningen, Germany

Robin - thank you! I don't actually use Photoshop (I found the image library easier to use in iPhoto), although I'd love to use it some day. But I never seemto find the time!

Robin Edmondson 5 years agofrom San Francisco

Your photographs are amazing. Maybe, just maybe, if I use a few of your tips I could take such pictures. I tend to use Instagram for a quick photo enhancement, but I'd like to learn to use Photoshop better. Great advice!